The Department for Work and Pensions is urging individuals to check their own National Insurance records for mistakes as soon as possible.

Records of National Insurance contributions are stored by HMRC but come from employer’s figures and heavily affect the amount of state pension a person is owed.

Computer errors leaving gaps in the amount of NI paid in a worker’s lifetime means they will receive far less than they are rightfully owed.

A Government spokesman told the Daily Mail: “To give people more control over their NI record, we set up the ‘Check your State Pension’ online service, which allows people to review gaps in their records and provides a forecast of the amount of pension they get.”

Checking your online NI records could make a huge difference to your pension

The latest gaffe by the DWP comes after they revealed last month that 50, 000 stay-at-home mums in the 80s and 90s may have had their pension records messed up due to its ill-equipped computer system.

Former Pensions Minister Steve Webb said the mums would have only accrued a state pension if they had claimed child benefit, but child benefit and NI records were stored on two different and likely conflicting IT systems.